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The Vigil to End Climate Silence kicked off this evening in Boston’s Government Center. People from all walks of life will be calling for an end to the political silence over climate change. This election year, it was put on the back burner while politicians focused on more pressing matters of the economy and foreign policy. This seems reasonable, so long as one ignores three, apparently inconvenient, things:

1) There is general scientific consensus that the climate is changing right now, that it is affecting us right now, and it will be much easier to deal with now than later.

“However, even with an 80 per cent emissions cut, damages will be large: any impact that occurs below a temperature rise of 1 °C (Figs. 1 and 2) is likely to be unavoidable, even under the most stringent mitigative action. Residual damage will be great unless we invest in adaptation now. Much of the damage could be avoided by adaptation, but again, this would require a much larger effort than is currently planned.”

“ …we can state, with a high degree of confidence, that extreme anomalies such as those in Texas and Oklahoma in 2011 and Moscow in 2010 were a consequence of global warming because their likelihood in the absence of global warming was exceedingly small.”

“The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has reaffirmed the position of its Board of Directors and the leaders of 18 respected organizations, who concluded based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now underway, and it is a growing threat to society.”

Gus Speth (who’s many hats have included Vermont Law School Professor of Law, Chairman of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality, and Keystone XL protester/arrestee) gave a rousing speech, followed by another fantastic one by Craig Altemose of Better Future Project to a small but dedicated crowd of 40 or so people. The vigil was organized by 350MA, Students for a Just and Stable Future and several other local organizations. The gathering included organizers from Occupy Boston and Veterans for Peace. There are stalwart folks out there as I write this tonight, keeping vigil and stubbornly working to break the silence. They will be there throughout the week and I am sure they would love company.

A quick update on the 10 people that were waiting a final hearing on Tuesday, after they were arrested for shutting down the Hobet 45 coal mine (a nonviolent protest against the practice of mountaintop removal, its impact on public safety and local ecology, and its impact on global climate trends).

“UPDATE 8/7/12: The remaining 10 arrestees were offered the same plea deal in Lincoln County Court this morning. All have accepted the deal. All arrestees have now been released at of 2:30 pm. Thanks for all of your steadfast support. More soon.”

… from the RAMPS website. This means all protesters involved are now out of jail.

Great news from the Lincoln County Court today. Half of our arrestees had their bail reduction hearings today. Instead of reducing their bails, the court offered a plea deal. In exchange for pleading guilty to the trespassing charge only, our activists were offered a $500 fine and 1 years probation. Nine arrestees have accepted the deal and will be released today. The other protester assigned that magistrate is Dustin Steele, who is free and has not taken the deal. What a relief and victory for all who have supported the Hobet 20.

This isn’t over however. The remaining 10 prisoners have a different magistrate and their hearing isn’t until Tuesday the 7th. There is no guarantee they will be offered the same deal or in fact any deal at all. We must keep the pressure on and continue to support our brothers and sisters in jail.

Dorian Williams waiting with the other 9 people for a hearing on Tuesday.

The RAMPS website reported today that Dustin Steele was released on bond. The 19 other protesters are still in Jail. The 20 were arrested after temporarily shutting down the Hobet 45 coal mine in Lincoln County West Virginia by attaching themselves to equipment, in a protest against mountaintopremoval.

Over the past day and a half, unconfirmed reports have come in regarding one of the 20 protesters arrested for temporarily shutting down the Hobet 45 coal mine. (They were protesting mountain top removal practices.) Initially, I did not pass this on because these reports are not first hand and I am not a trained or experienced journalist. I have neither the time nor expertise to thoroughly investigate or confirm this kind of story, especially one that is this serious. I was also concerned about the safety of those involved. The following statements are forwarded excerpts from forwarded email- coming through two separate channels:

Received via e-mail on evening of 7/30/12 (original date uncertain):

“I have a report from yesterday afternoon that Dorian and all the other women arrested in the protest are together in jail, healthy and in good spirits.

Unfortunately, the men have not fared as well. Dustin Steele, the twenty year old son and grandson of WV coal miners, was taken out of his cell yesterday and badly beaten by police. Other inmates reported that as he left the room where they hurt him, he struggled to or was unable to walk.”

Received via e-mail, 7/31/12 (original date also 7/31/12):

“On Saturday 50 people occupied the mountaintop removal site of the Hoget Mine in West Virginia. Twenty of them were arrested and have been in jail ever since. Three or four people arrested were from Asheville. One of the protestors, Dustin Steele, was injured by police, and is being denied medical care.”

After speaking with RAMPS organizers, I contacted the ACLU to get information. The ACLU national office directed me to the West Virginia chapter. The ACLU in West Virginia will only provide legal advice if a request is sent in writing by the person filing the complaint. This means Steele himself would have to write a paper letter and then send it from jail. I was told people often send such complaints from jail. It is unclear how viable an option this would be in Mr. Steele’s case. I passed this information on to RAMPS organizers, who are already working with two lawyers, and cannot speak directly to the situation beyond that.

Now, this information is now being posted. It is in the hopes that someone experienced in investigative reporting will consider pursuing these very serious allegations further.

Many updates have been filtering in, mostly through email. We have been told that the 20 arrested for shutting down Hobet mine in Lincoln County, West Virginia are still in jail and in the process of raising funds for a bail set at $25,000 each. Other information is trickling through, some very serious. For the moment such stories will not be passed along as they deserve more than “telephone style” reports.

Instead, I would encourage people to read Sue Sturgis’ brief article in Facing South (for The Institute of Southern Studies). She discusses a mounting body of research associating strip mining with cancer, birth defects, and other serious illnesses amongst those living in the area, and the recently introduced H.R. 5959 (the ACHE Act) that would place a legal moratorium on mountain top removal coal mining.

In the mean time organizers are trying to raise money for the 20 protesters being held.

Dorian Williams, active in OB’s CASEJ working group, Students for a Just and Sustainable Future, 350.org, and now 350 MA, was arrested last night, along with about 19 others, after successfully shutting down a mountain top removal mine in West Virginia. The action was organized by RAMPS (Radical Action for Mountain People’s Survival), a nonviolent organization centered in the coal fields of West Virginia, and dedicated to ending all strip mining in Appalachia. These 20 people stopped production by using lockboxes to attach themselves to a giant rock truck, as a means of calling attention to the harms of strip mining and the damage it does to local communities, local ecosystems, and the global atmosphere.

Knowing Dorian personally, I can say that she is a passionate and hard working person who puts great thought into how to be a more responsible member of a global community, and is quite bright in all senses of the word. She is an optimist who believes that dedicated people can mobilize to make the world a better place. It might be easiest to write her and her cohort off as kids seeking a thrill, but I can vouch that at least one is a deeply conscientious adult responding to a dire situation. It’s a reality that might leave one looking a little harder at herself.

There is now a collection going out for their bail, but I’d like to take the “ask” a step further. Tell everyone you can think of that this is happening. Tell them why.